The College of New Caledonia is looking at a much rosier financial picture this year, according to CNC president Henry Reiser.
“We had very good news. We were in surplus – now these are unaudited numbers and we’re going through that process right now – and it looks like we have around a $1.8 million surplus.”
It’s the first time in a decade the school has managed to get into the black.
“It certainly is a good thing,” says Reiser. “It’s better than being in deficit. It’s the first time that CNC has not been in deficit in 10 years.”
He says he believes there are a few reasons for the surplus.
“We think that it principally came from surprise enrollment both in our day programming and in continuing education and cost recovery.”
But even though things are looking very good, CNC’s board is exercising caution.
“The Board wasn’t comfortable with the size of the variance,” Reiser says. “So what we’re going to do is we’re going to review where that variance is and then go forward in allocating monies in a well thought out manner. We’re going to look to see where we have efficiencies and we’re going to revisit some of those cuts that we made and program suspensions that we made to get where we are.”
The College was forced to make significant cuts and suspend some programs due to last year’s $2.8 million dollar deficit. That included suspending the popular dental hygiene program and restructuring student services at the Quesnel, Burns Lake and Prince George campuses.
The Board will hold a special meeting in May to formally adopt the budget.